Dumping Debt with Dave Ramsey/DECEMBER - Page 12

[Areannasmom]

I'm loving this thread! I'm super excited about going to the library tomorrow and taking out his book (hopefully they have it!)
Just last week i was looking at my CC bills and realized i was paying 17% on a $4k card so i transfered it to a fixed 4.9 (not sure if thats what DR would have me do, but this is before i was introduced)
So now all my CC debt is on 1 card (other than about $250 which i will pay off with the next 2 checks) it totals about 6K.
I have my house and an equity loan= about 110K
I'm going to put together all my numbers tomorrow on my day off and post my budget. I'm hoping having my budget out for the public eyes (well MDC folks anyway) will keep me motivated to actually stick to it.

If i had known MDC had so many great threads i would've joined a long time ago!

[tannersmommy]

Envelope Question

For those of you who have been using envelopes longer, how long do you hang on to any leftover funds, before putting it toward savings or debt?

Just curious what each of you do. At this point in the month, I have $270 left in my envelopes (totaling all categories), and I'm trying to decide whether to clean it out at the end of the month, starting over with the beginning of the month budget, or save it from month to month.

What I think I will do is save the money that's left in Clothing and Haircuts, and the rest of it, if there is $ left in Entertainment, Blow, etc., will go toward finishing the EF and Debt.

What do you do?

[annethcz]

Stephanie, we don't use a cash envelope system, but we do have budgeted categories. Right now I transfer all unused funds into our savings account ASAP, so we won't use it for something else. For example, we came in $25 under budget for DH's grandma's Xmas gift. Rather than splurge on something, I transferred the money to savings immediately. I'm not sure what I'd do about other categories, though.

This was a good time of year to start this, as we generally get gifts from our families for Christmas. Our EF keeps climbing. I started out this month with almost nothing, and it will be fully funded by early next month, if not sooner. Hooray! As of today, our EF is 799/1000

[tannersmommy]

Baby Step 1: EF = $920/1000 Wooo Hooooo!

[shanetedissac]

Originally Posted by tannersmommy

For those of you who have been using envelopes longer, how long do you hang on to any leftover funds, before putting it toward savings or debt?

Just curious what each of you do. At this point in the month, I have $270 left in my envelopes (totaling all categories), and I'm trying to decide whether to clean it out at the end of the month, starting over with the beginning of the month budget, or save it from month to month.

What I think I will do is save the money that's left in Clothing and Haircuts, and the rest of it, if there is $ left in Entertainment, Blow, etc., will go toward finishing the EF and Debt.

What do you do?

I love our envelopes. If there is any money left at the end of the month then it rolls over to the next month. If the money is looking like there is left over each month then we adjust our budget, there was too much going to that one. All the things that you listed we call sink funds. We may not need it this month but will in the future. Especially entertainment! On the actual budget for items that I don't have envelopes for and we pay less then budgets then the money goes to our extras (would be your debt). We are currently debt fee except for the house so our extra money go to our extras list.

Be well,

Shane

[mumkenna&lucas]

Originally Posted by tannersmommy

Baby Step 1: EF = $920/1000 Wooo Hooooo!

OMG you are doing soo well!!

[tannersmommy]

Originally Posted by mumkenna&lucas

OMG you are doing soo well!!

Thanks. I'm really excited. I feel like my life is (somewhat) back in control.

[annethcz]

Originally Posted by tannersmommy

Thanks. I'm really excited. I feel like my life is (somewhat) back in control.

You are doing really well And I know what you mean about feeling in control. When I started the month with almost nothing in savings, I was so depressed and embarrassed. But now that I have demonstrated to myself that I can follow through with the plan, I have so much more confidence.

[Red]

tannersmommy! That's so great! Are we having a little party when you hit 1000?

















I always like a free party with calorie free goodies and no stress.















I'm still at $48/1000, which is still better than the $o it was last month. *sigh* Maybe I'll see if I can't get a roll of dimes out of the change jar.

[mumkenna&lucas]

We are doing horrible we are - in our bank and no $ coming for 2 weeks dh does have some cash jobs this weekend and next weekend so as long as we can get through Christmas we should be alright. So stressed.
I hate this! I applied for a pt job a few days ago, but I haven't gotten a call back yet..

[Areannasmom]

My muffler fell off my car, there was a problem with my finicial aid for school and my daughter throw up on my coat. :

180.82 for the muffler
65.05 for 1 class registration (as long as finicial aid comes thru i'll get this back)
14 to dry clean my coat (its wool and i dont have the right stuff to clean it)

Before learning about this program i've always keep at least 1000 in the savings, but never used it (it was always for emergancy but nothing ever justified an emergancy, i always used a CC- guess that behavior needs to change)

So i used a CC for the muffler, but i'm going to transfer the $ from EF and send right now to CC

EF (after transfer) 1100/1000

due to all the drama of yesterday i never made it to the library, so i have a question for those experienced with the program

I already have the EF, but i also have about 6k in CC debt. what comes first- EF or paying off CC?

[Purple*Lotus]

I have been lurking in here for a while. I was waiting for the book to be available at the library, but that is not happening any time soon. So when my DH's Grandmother sent me Christmas money, I took part in the $10 sale on Dave's site. My copy of TTMM should be here soon

Okay, so I am Jaime. I have a husband, three cats and no kids (yet). I also have a lot of credit card debt left over from my days as a single college student with no medical insurance. So I am really wanting to pay that off

I have no idea what the steps are yet, but I just wanted to introduce myself and make myself known It is nice to meet you all

[Purple*Lotus]

Okay so here is our budget. Feel free to be brutally honest if you think there is something I can cut down on.

Rent: $420
Electricity: $67
Water/Trash: $63
Landline (so we can use dial up internet): $38.00 on the cheapest plan
Internet: $0 (My Dad paid for it as a gift because he was worried about me driving to my University for my online classes in the winter)
Cell Phone: $80 (I tried to get rid of this, but DH drives far to work and I have to be on call 24/7 for my job, I already eliminated the extras that I had such as text messaging and picture messaging)
Groceries: $400- this includes cat food, cat litter, cleaning supplies and toiletries
DH's Car Payment- $212
Gas/Oil/Auto Maintainence: $190 - I only get gas once a month or so because I work so close to home. DH needs to fill up once a week and no one else lives in our area so carpooling is out
Insurance- I take out $92 a month, but it is due 4 times a year
Student Loan: $120
Credit card A: $121 min.
Credit card B: $131 min.
Credit card C only has about $500 left on it so I am hitting that one first to pay it off
Eating out: $60
Misc. Blow Money for both of us is a total of: $80
Medical Expenses: $20 this covers any medications and visits we have copays for
Curves Membership: $30.74 Yes, I know what you are thinking. I am obese, and I will die young if I do not lose weight, (or so my dramatic doctor says) and I already quit Weight Watchers. So I want to keep my Curves because I truly need to exercise per my doctor. I work 70 hours a week so I don't have a lot of time to play with, so I decided that Curves is worth keeping. I truly do use this membership many times a week, so it's not one of those things I pay for but never go to kind of things. I also can't get out of my contract, I checked
Christmas: $20
Postage: $15 I mail baby blankets out for charity, so I budget for postage
Cats: $75 this is for their medical care and flea treatments, they normally only go once or twice a year, but I needed to budget for it so I was not hit with a big expense all at once

That is all I have, what do you think :

[~PurityLake~]

Jaimie:

Blow money: don't need it

Cats: I honestly don't know why you need to spend on them yearly.
I can understand if you need frontline if they go outside, or you live in a warmer climate where fleas/ticks are a problem. You could order from dr fosters and smith or online at pet meds for cheaper rates on those products.
As far as yearly exams and vaccines go... I used to work for vets and it's been proven that yearly vaccines are completely unnecessary. Vets just told people they HAD to come back for vaccines because they wanted the pets to get the exams every year and people weren't going to bring their pets in yearly just for the exams.
Cats given the boosters as kittens, then at 1 year, stay protected from what you vaccinated for a minimum of two years, an average of 8-12. I stopped yearly vaccinations on my cats when I found that out. I give them rabies every 3 years since it's required by law. Even rabies no longer is done every 1, just every 3 years. I go to a vaccination clinic to avoid exam fees. I called around when I moved here and found out the local Pet Zoo (pet store) has a vaccination clinic every 6 months. An AAHA certified veterinarian sets up at the pet store and give free exams with the vaccinations. They cost me $60 to have my one dog and two cats vaccinated for distemper and rabies, (they hadn't had distemper or rabies in 3 years) and their exams were free. So, maybe you can look around for deals such as that, as long as you make sure it's still quality care, as in the vet is AAHA certified.

[DesireeH]

Welcome Jaime!! I think your budget looks pretty good....Maybe can you reduce the "blow" money to $40 each instead of $80 each? Maybe the cats monthly to $50 instead of $75?

Way to go on doing Curves. I used to go back in the day....and I really liked that place. I did WW too, but I did it by myself for free, saving the $12 a week. I lost over 100 pounds in a year that way and its stayed off for going on 1.5 years now. I mostly used the website http://www.dwlz.com for all the info/point/restaurant info for free. I liked being able to save the weekly cost of meetings for clothes instead!

I already have the EF, but i also have about 6k in CC debt. what comes first- EF or paying off CC?

According to the DR book...you save $1000 first for emergency fund, then do the debt snowball, and after you pay off your debt, then you save 3-6 months of living expenses in your fund. If you have more than 1K in your EF, I'd put the extra towards your debt and then start the "debts snowball" (putting anything "extra" toward the smallest balance card until its paid off and then moving to the next one.)

Aww Amanda, I'm sorry. Hopefully you hear back from the pt job soon!

[tannersmommy]

Welcome, Jamie!
I think your budget looks pretty good. Here is something that I found very helpful from the book - Dave's recommended percentages for each budget category (this is percent of net income, I think):
Giving 10-15%
Saving 5-10%
Housing 25-35%
Utilities 5-10%
Food 5-15%
Transportation 10-15%
Clothing 2-7%
Medical 5-10%
Personal 5-10%
Recreation 5-10%
Debts 5-10%

This let me know that my budget was reasonable. All of my numbers are within these ranges, except for Housing - very low at 18%, Food - a little high at 16%, and Recreation - very low at 2%.

[Areannasmom]

DesireeH - thanks

I've thought of another question:

I am hourly and commission- how do i budget? my commission can vary by 2-800. do i budget based on an average or the lowest it could be with whatever is over going to CC and savings?

[~PurityLake~]

I would budget for the lowest commission and put any extra toward first the EF, if it's full, then pay extra to the CC.

[Areannasmom]

Originally Posted by ~Purity♥Lake~

I would budget for the lowest commission and put any extra toward first the EF, if it's full, then pay extra to the CC.

thats what i was thinking- thanks

[starling&diesel]

worse-case-scenario budgeting

Originally Posted by Areannasmom

DesireeH - thanks

I've thought of another question:

I am hourly and commission- how do i budget? my commission can vary by 2-800. do i budget based on an average or the lowest it could be with whatever is over going to CC and savings?

Budget based on your worst year, or take the average over three years.
I'm a writer and part time paramedic, both of which are unpredictable incomes. I do worst-case-scenario budgeting.
My partner is a chef, so we can count on her income. Mine, we low ball. And then when the royalty cheques come in, or I sell foreign rights, or it's a busy month on the ambulance, we use that money for larger items (taxes, new fridge, etc).

Areanna's mom ... I realize you're budgeting on one income? My best friend (who is a single mom) does that, and again, budgets for the worst month (as a paramedic that can be a mere couple hundred dollars) and always has three months set aside in case it dries up entirely, or she's unable to work.